ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY BLOG | INVENTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Getting the news can be a challenge if you have a print disability. But luckily there are many was to get accessible news if you know where to look. In the video above I detail many ways to access the news. One way to access the newspaper is to download a spoken summary of the paper such as the New York Times' Front Page Podcast. Another way to access the news is with Bookshare. Bookshare offers many newspapers and periodicals for free for members. If you are unfamiliar with Bookshare or the Read2Go app click on their respective links. Another way to access the news is with text-to-speech. Text-to-speech software can read the news to you if you have a print disability. Watch the video to learn more about accessing the news if you have a print disability.

For the past five years I have had my blog posts automatically converted to text to speech using the Odiogo service. Odiogo takes my RSS feed and automatically converts any new posts on my blog to high quality text to speech. You probably have see the Listen Now button before each blog post that allows you to access the Odiogo controls to have the post read. If you have not tried it out I urge you to do so- having the Odiogo feature on my blog allows anyone to access the information that I am sharing in a different output. Additionally, if you would like you can download a blog post to a MP 3 file or save a post to your iTunes Library. However, if you would like to subscribe to my blog and have every new post automatically delivered to your iPod or iPhone in a format you can listen to I have put together a demonstration video to show you how you can subscribe to my blog in iTunes. It is fairly easy to subscribe to my blog and once you do you will automatically get each new post delivered to your iPod or iPhone when you plug it into your computer. For those of you who are familiar with how to subscribe to a podcast in iTunes - all you need to do is paste this URL [http://podcasts.odiogo.com/assistive-tehnology/podcasts-xml.php] into the Subscribe to Podcast dialog box. That's all there is to it. To view the demonstration video on how to subscribe to my podcasts click here.

Listen to what we hope will be the first of many podcasts on the topic of visual mapping. This past weekend Wallace and I over Skype had a chance to sit down and talk about visual mapping, the Visual Mapping Body of Knowledge (VMBOK) and my upcoming presentation at the VizThink 2009 North American Conference. Listen to our banter and enjoy. Look for more podcasts coming soon that will be posted here at the AssistiveTek Blog. Enjoy!

In two weeks I will be doing a workshop for school administrators and was looking for an easy way to create podcasts, well I think I found it. I had bookmarked Gcast some time ago in my Delicious account but had forgotten about it. Today I set up my account and channels and created my first podcast using my cell phone. Gcast provides you with a toll free number to call the network and by providing your PIN you can begin recording your podcast using your phone.

After you are done you can review your recording and if you like re-record it. To save and upload the podcast all you need to do is hit the # key. It was just that easy. When I returned to the Gcast website I had to wait about 5 minutes for the podcast to be processed. Once it was uploaded I was able to assign it to a channel. Here is a quick podcast that I did. Gcast made making podcast's from a cell phone extremely easy. You can also upload podcast via your computer and upload them to iTunes. Check out my first Gcast podcast below.


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Earlier this month I was interviewed by Tom Crawford of VizThink and we had a great dialog about how visualization is used to meet the needs of students with disabilities. The session was recorded and is now live on the VizThink website. During the interview I had the opportunity to share with Tom some software tools that are used to help students who may present with reading and writing disabilities and just how important the visual supports are in the learning process.

As excited as I am to listen and view the podcast, I am more excited that I have been asked to present at the VizThink 2009 Conference on this very topic, that will be held in San Jose, CA on February 22-25. It is important to understand that when I usually do assistive technology presentations and workshops that I am primarily talking to regular and special education teachers who have students who could benefit from these technologies. This is one of the first times, that I will have the opportunity to talk with individuals with a wide range of backgrounds that are deeply interested in how visual thinking can help solve real world problems. In my session I will demonstrate and talk about how different programs utilize visual supports to aide students in reading, writing, thinking and organizing ideas. I look forward to the feedback and input from my participants who may come up with new ways to think about how we can use visual supports. To register for the VizThink North America 2009 Conference just click on the link.